United Nations Global Compact: an 'Inroad' into the UN and reputation boost for the tobacco industry

Tobacco companies, corporate social responsibility and the use of third-party awards: a framing analysis

OBJECTIVE

Corporate social responsibility activities, such as third-party awards, provide an opportunity for tobacco companies (TCs) to promote themselves as socially, economically and environmentally responsible organisations. This study aimed to determine how TCs are using third-party awards to frame themselves and their core activities via company-controlled communication channels.

METHODS

TC-owned media coverage promoting third-party awards was identified from company-owned media channels, including websites, reports, press releases and Twitter. Using framing theory and thematic analysis, frames and broader themes were identified using a process of inductive coding.

RESULTS

TC-produced media content promoting third-party awards framed the companies as socially and environmentally responsible organisations, which excel at business and are innovative and transformative. Dominant frames identified included excellent workplace culture, championing diversity and inclusion and action on the environment.

CONCLUSION

TCs are capitalising on the perceived credibility and objectivity of third-party awards using these 'honours' as a promotional strategy to justify their continuing role in society and enhance their perceived legitimacy in relation to claims of ethical and responsible behaviour. The results of this study have implications for tobacco control advocacy, as continuing to allow the promotion of these awards appears to contravene or conflict with the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.

Tobacco industry's human rights makeover: an archival review of British American Tobacco's human rights rhetorical veneer

BACKGROUND

British American Tobacco (BAT) released an industry-first human rights report in 2020, which extolled the efforts and objectives of the tobacco industry giant for promoting human rights. How BAT came to brand itself as a human rights champion, being a leader in an industry long accused of enabling human rights violations from leaf-to-stub including profiting from a product which inherently violates the right to health, is unknown. Exploring BAT's evolution through reviewing its materials and Tobacco Industry Documents could shed light on their development and what it means in the tobacco control and human rights context.

METHODOLOGY

We reviewed publicly available materials from BAT as well as conducted archival research in the Tobacco Industry Documents digital archives at University of California San Francisco. We focused on how and when BAT used terms such as 'human rights', 'right to health', 'sustainable development goal' and 'harm reduction' as well as 'Framework Convention on Tobacco Control'.

RESULTS

We reviewed 48 BAT publications and 45 documents from the Tobacco Industry Documents archives. These materials demonstrate both BAT's increasing utilisation of human rights language as well as BAT's reuse of the same language, concepts and general rhetoric. BAT has not engaged significantly or meaningfully on the human right to health.

CONCLUSION

BAT's increasing use of human rights rhetoric does not appear to reflect a shift in the company's human rights positions, particularly with respect to the right to health of consumers and BAT's lack of impactful measures to eliminate the harms of its tobacco products.

Commercial determinants of health: future directions

This paper is about the future role of the commercial sector in global health and health equity. The discussion is not about the overthrow of capitalism nor a full-throated embrace of corporate partnerships. No single solution can eradicate the harms from the commercial determinants of health-the business models, practices, and products of market actors that damage health equity and human and planetary health and wellbeing. But evidence shows that progressive economic models, international frameworks, government regulation, compliance mechanisms for commercial entities, regenerative business types and models that incorporate health, social, and environmental goals, and strategic civil society mobilisation together offer possibilities of systemic, transformative change, reduce those harms arising from commercial forces, and foster human and planetary wellbeing. In our view, the most basic public health question is not whether the world has the resources or will to take such actions, but whether humanity can survive if society fails to make this effort.

The environmental externalities of tobacco manufacturing: A review of tobacco industry reporting

Growing research and public awareness of the environmental impacts of tobacco present an opportunity for environmental science and public health to work together. Various United Nations agencies share interests in mitigating the environmental costs of tobacco. Since 2000, transnational tobacco industry consolidation has accelerated, spotlighting the specific companies responsible for the environmental and human harms along the tobacco production chain. Simultaneously, corporate social responsibility norms have led the industry to disclose statistics on the environmental harms their business causes. Yet, independent and consistent reporting remain hurdles to accurately assessing tobacco's environmental impact. This article is the first to analyze publicly available industry data on tobacco manufacturing pollution. Tobacco's significant environmental impact suggests this industry should be included in environmental analyses as a driver of environmental degradation influencing climate change. Countries aiming to meet UN Sustainable Development Goals must act to reduce environmental harms caused by the tobacco industry.

‘We have a rich heritage and, we believe, a bright future’: how transnational tobacco companies are using Twitter to oppose policy and shape their public identity

Background

The tobacco industry has a long history of opposing tobacco control policy and promoting socially responsible business practices. With the rise of social media platforms, like Twitter, the tobacco industry is enabled to readily and easily communicate these messages.

Methods

All tweets published by the primary corporate Twitter accounts of British American Tobacco (BAT), Imperial Brands PLC (Imperial), Philip Morris International (PMI) and Japan Tobacco International (JTI) were downloaded in May 2017 and manually coded under 30 topic categories.

Results

A total of 3301 tweets across the four accounts were analysed. Overall, the most prominent categories of tweets were topics that opposed or critiqued tobacco control policies (36.3% of BAT’s tweets, 35.1% of Imperial’s tweets, 34.0% of JTI’s tweets and 9.6% of PMI’s tweets). All companies consistently tweeted to promote an image of being socially and environmentally responsible. Tweets of this nature comprised 29.1% of PMI’s tweets, 20.9% of JTI’s tweets, 18.4% of Imperial’s tweets and 18.4% of BAT’s tweets. BAT, Imperial, JTI and PMI also frequently used Twitter to advertise career opportunities, highlight employee benefits, promote positive working environments and bring attention to awards and certifications that the company had received (11.6%, 11.1%, 19.3% and 45.7% of the total tweets published by each account, respectively).

Conclusions

Transnational tobacco companies are using Twitter to oppose tobacco control policy and shape their public identity by promoting corporate social responsibility initiatives in violation of WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. Regulation of the tobacco industry’s global online activities is required.